The Dolphin Ambassador

The cold darkness of water instantly burst into bright sunlight, but only for a moment. Another crash returned the world to royal blue. A white flash, a spin and a dive, and then the sun again. But only for a moment, and the chase resumed. There were others around, but they only laughed and tried to stay out of the way. Their laughter and presence went completely unnoticed, as the two in pursuit knew nothing else. One was first with the other close behind, and sometimes they switched. There was little chance of getting caught – yet. Eventually one would be caught, and things would get interesting, but for now, everything rushed by in a series of blurs. The blurs did their best to avoid collisions. For Pheyus, it had never been like this before. Courtships were always a splash, but this particular chase had all of his senses blazing from the intensity. And the truly nice part was, Afalla seemed to be experiencing the same delight. Currently in the lead, Afalla raced deep and smashed through an unsuspecting group of yellowfin, bolting them in all directions. Directly above her, Pheyus scattered a group of his own, but without as much of a surprise factor. Afalla began to spin and then turned back for the Border of air and water. Pheyus pushed as hard as he could, equaling her length the instant they hit the Border. He saw her in the air. She somersaulted backward as he did the same flip forward. Their splashes were as perfectly matched as if they had rehearsed the event for several seasons. The chase resumed. Afalla’s lead had reduced drastically with the aerial acrobatics, but she yanked into a quick spin and cut back beneath Pheyus. He whistled as she passed below, then followed with a similar maneuver. Two juveniles cut them off and tried to join the pursuit, but the young adult speed of Pheyus and Afalla left the younger pair lost in their fluke wakes. Pheyus barely noticed them, or the nearly eight hundred other Stenella swimming close by. Like everything else, courtships were quite public. There were no secrets within the company. Pheyus was about to slow up slightly to give her more of a lead, but Afalla suddenly turned sideways into a near halt. Pheyus was beside her instantly, and turned quickly so they faced the same direction. It didn’t have to, but his momentum carried him into contact with her left side. His right pectoral fin slid below her rostrum, and she pulled forward slightly to position them fin-to-fin. He rolled slightly to his right so he could press his head against hers. She was incredibly beautiful. Her deep brown eyes were surrounded with circles of smooth white lines of perfect proportions. Her spots, from the dark ones on her belly blending into the light ones on her back were so perfectly distributed, they almost seemed unreal. It was as if Lady Stenella had personally designed her as the ultimate of her line. All this, and the cleverness to wear only two small shark gashes on her flukes. “I’ve haven’t been part of such a wild chase, before,” said Afalla. “We nearly collided with half the company.” “Did we?” asked Pheyus. “I guess I was too intent on you to notice anything else.” She smiled, then broke the Border for air. She stayed at the edge, with her dorsal fin in the sunlight while Pheyus took a breath and dropped below her, turning upside down. The water around them seemed so warm and alive. Afalla’s aura was strong enough to surround Pheyus as well, so he did his best to absorb it and feel her spirit inside him. It was incredibly bright silver, and Pheyus closed his eyes to block out the intensity, but the sparkle was within him. His flukes began to tremble slightly. Being so overwhelmed with enchantment and ecstasy was a new and exciting experience. He opened his eyes and whistled, for the energy would only surge from this point on. “I’ve never been so happy, Pheyus,” she said. He knew her words were honest, for Stenella had no outlet for anything but the truth. I can’t believe this,” said Pheyus. He flipped over and darted to the Border for air, then once again pressed against her side. “I can’t believe I finally found you. You’re the most beautiful Stenella I’ve ever seen.” She smiled and pressed slightly harder. Suddenly, a booming thunder ripped through the water. Its shock slammed Afalla into Pheyus, sending the two of them tumbling wildly at the Border. Pheyus pushed hard with his flukes but was struck again by Afalla, who still had no control over the spins. He managed to force the two of them into an even glide despite how badly his senses were screaming from the concussion. The company was panicked. Their shrieks came from every direction as they raced away from the devastating sound. Afalla was screaming as well, but Pheyus pushed her forward to join in the escape. Pheyus was still dazed, but he dared not stop to worry about it. He kicked his flukes as hard as he could, trying to distance himself from the trouble as best he could. Afalla was directly beside him, no more than two fins away. Now in complete flight, the company was a total chaos. Pheyus snapped his jaws as he raced, trying to clear his head. He desperately needed to find the company perimeter, to help spirit them into a more controlled and narrow group. Like the others, Pheyus porpoised at the Border for maximum speed. He spent as much time in the air as he did the water, using gravity and buoyancy to his advantage. He began to veer toward the closest periphery of the group, trying to avoid collisions with the reckless advances of frightened Stenella. Another noise to their right jerked the company to the left. It was loud and continuous on the other side of the Border, and it seemed to be chasing them. Its menacing roar muffled the cries of the terrified company. The roar intensified. It was not on, but above the water, above sending the company into an instinctive dive. Pheyus screamed at them to stay up, but the noise buried his orders before they even left his head. Only Afalla stayed at the Border with him, and only because she was too frightened to leave his side. There were eight hundred of them and they couldn’t hide. The water was very clear and they had to come up for air, so Pheyus knew they should stay at the Border where their speed was at its ultimate. But most of them stayed down near the yellowfin, who were equally terrified and keeping directly below the Stenella. Now with the benefit of speed over the others, Pheyus rushed to the left outer edge of the company. He cut in front of Afalla, hoping to use their two bodies to contain the group from spreading any further when they came up for air. He was greatly outnumbered, but he hoped the others would recognize him and follow his lead. It was getting closer. When most of the company broke the Border for air and immediately dove, Pheyus knew his efforts were useless. He took three quick breaths and then dropped down to join them. Safety was no longer with speed, but with numbers. The horrible noise was directly above him, and Pheyus could see its effect on the Border. It didn’t touch the water, but it somehow created a bizarre pattern of waves, terrifying the company into staying down even longer. Only mothers with infants remained at the Border, since the babies required air more often. The roaring seemed to lessen slightly, and drift toward the rear of the company. Pheyus kicked to the Border to help protect infants when another roar erupted to their right. It was a small boat with a loud, fast motor, rumbling directly at them. Pheyus whipped around to his left. Now under attack from two directions, the hysterical company was an out-of-control mob. Protecting infants or anyone else had become impossible. Everyone was on their own. He couldn’t think. Too much was happening too quickly. He had tried to stay calm, but the terror was overtaking him. To survive, he had to stay with the company, but his trembling flukes were pushing him faster and faster. Afalla had somehow remained beside him as he caught up with other young adults who were in the lead. They were starting to break away from the rest of the company, so he tried to scream at them to slow down, but noticed he was already screaming incoherently. Afalla was screaming as well, but he could not hear her. He could not even hear himself. The gap began to widen, and Pheyus tried to stop, but his flukes kicked on. Suddenly, the first roaring monster was in front of him, very loud and close. He again turned to his left to avoid both it and the boat, which was circling along the right. His heart was pounding and his lungs were about to explode. He had to go back to porpoising, despite the threat from above. He hit the air and noticed the odd gust of downward wind, as well as the vicious noise, which became even worse when he hit the water. Again in the air, he saw the huge boat in the distance. The entire company was speeding directly for it. He screamed a warning no one heard and no one would have heeded if they had. The roaring pursuers had the company too terrified to do anything but accelerate in the opposite direction, no matter what might be ahead. Another booming crash directly in front of the company smashed into Pheyus with the force of an Orca. Blazing white pain ripped through his senses, forcing an immediate halt. Along with him, the entire company fluked to a dead stop. The attackers had them surrounded. They were too exhausted and injured to move any farther, anyway. Pheyus was drifting at the Border. The concussion from the second explosion had blasted his senses into agony. His head was pounding in three separate places, as were his jaw and upper rostrum. Only his eyes were uninjured, but they were tightly jammed shut in response to all of the other painful damage. The hovering monster disappeared, but Pheyus didn’t notice. He was fading into a strange smear of thick haze, where clear and solid images were somehow out of perception. He could barely hear anything or feel any echoes from the others in the company. He began to wonder if he was dead, but then he realized Lady Stenella would be there to greet him if he was, and there would be warm ebullience, not excruciating pain. As far as he could tell, at this point only the pain was real. So was the need to breathe, but he didn’t exactly know where he was. He didn’t want to blow if he was deep below the Border, but he had no choice. He let the air out of his pounding lungs, and was relieved to find air to take in. The darkness remained. There was something he was supposed to be doing, but he couldn’t remember what it was. He was vaguely aware of some sort of movement around him, but it was impossible to tell where it was or what it might be. Hoping he was still at the Border, he blew out all of his air. A strange sense of relief passed through as he took in another breath. Slowly, it began to clear. His eyes began to open slightly, and he noticed several other Stenella around him. He took another breath, then opened his eyes even more. The haze faded enough for him to realize what was happening. There were two other Stenella directly below, pushing him up to the surface so he could breathe.